The Thousand-Eyed God
The Thousand-Eyed God, The God of Eyes or Sklrah is an Outer God, an amorphous cloud of eye-shaped orbs who gaze across the universe in search of lost or wandering souls to swallow into its dense core, feed on their light and enlarge its mass since times immemorial. The being is the main deity worshipped by the Blackseers. In the game Sklrah is the god of an unnamed monotheistic cult whose participants call themselves the Blackseers. He (or She) is a callous entity, said to appear as a mass of infinite eyes. An enormous cloud of floating orbs of many different sizes, colors and shapes, who go in and out of existence. The irises vary in hue and shade, but the core is always pitch black and shine with a polished onix texture. These orbs emit an invisible ray of evil influence which distorts time and space wherever it lands, sucking in souls to eat as if by a straw. Often one of those orbs will be sent away, growing into an independent entity who will eventually be attracted back to it's origin. Cult The Thousand-Eyed god is worshipped by many races in many planets across the ages. On earth, its worshippers are called Blackseers and have been around since around 300AD. It was also workshipped by the Hindu at some point. With the proper ritual, Sklrah can be triggered to send one of it's 'eyes' to 'watch' a region in search of sacrifices from which it'll imprison their souls and bring them back to the core to be digested. Even a relatively small eye can influence it's target in devastating ways. Once focused in a given region, it turns into The Gaze, an area where time and space lose their meanings and all natural order is subverted and distorted, creating chaos. Ritual To summon one of Sklrah's emissaries, a carefully choreographed ritual must take place. # A virgin with two perfect working eyes is taken and bathed. If possible, it's body is shaved entirely. # The victim is then sedated and dressed in pure white garbs, it's eyes covered in a silk blindfold and nothing else. He or she is then put in a ceremonial egg-shaped stone altar. # A tumbaka, or group of drummers, opens the cerimony, calling upon the entities present. The cultists begin chanting, many channeling their personal guardians. # Offerings of snake heads, guaraná berries and candles are given by each participant. Exaltations are cheered and welcomed, the presence of evil can already be felt. # The master of the ceremony approaches the victim and chants, waiting for the sign of the tumbaka. # The tumbaka stop. A cold, dead silence takes place. The master then is approached by his assistants. # One of the assistants remove the victim's blindfold while the other presents a specially prepared edged scoop and annoints it in grease. # While the assistants hold the semi-conscious victim, the master removes both the victim's eyes with extreme prejudice. # The assistans tie the victim by the feet and neck as the master holds one eye in each hand, chanting as the tumbaka slowly restart the drumming. # The victim is then lifted by it's feet to be bled to death through its eye sockets. A pyre is put under it. # The master finishes chanting and burns both eyes in the pyre. They'll stay there until both eyes turn completely to ash. # Once it's done, if the victim is still alive, the rope around its neck is pulled by an assistant until the victim dies by asphyxiation. # After that the victim is untied and it's body disposed of. The next victim will then be put in the altar. # Then, after all sacrifices are finished, the tumbaka play a round of rhythms that slowly halts the ceremony until they finally stop and the ritual is over. # The cultists then have dinner and go about their business. The Objective and the Truth People who worship The Thousand-Eyed God argue that reality as we know it is a big illusion, given by a puny, lesser false god who enslaves everyone within its web of lies. They call this god by many names including 'the trickster' and 'the absolute liar'. Sklrah, they say, is the true God, The Holder of Truth, capable of showing the magnificent reality beyond the shade of falsehood imposed by the trickster for those worthy enough. In their texts, they proclaim that 'true reality' is infinitely beautiful, pleasurable and enlightening, a place of endless orgasmic bliss, where you 'have ten times as many senses and each feels ten times more'. By uniting with the Thousand-Eyed God, the 'scales are finally removed' and your soul will live eternal in this paradise of ultimate goodness and wisdom. The truth, though, is nothing like it. In reality, Sklrah is a mass of pure destructive, unnatural maleficence. A dark god, it destroys the fabric of reality in unrecoverable ways through it's gaze, by instinct alone, not even able to care or reflect about anything but it's sustainance. People who worship Sklrah offer their souls as food, to be used as a simple energy source for a monstrous entity, thinking they'll live in a paradise of endless sensual pleasure.